WASHINGTON STATE SOCIETY
FOR HEALTHCARE ENGINEERING

ANNUAL PRECONFERENCE BOARD MEETING
FEBRUARY 13, 2009

MINUTES

PRESENT:
Brad Jones; President
Tom Pitts; Immediate Past President
Mike Chitwood; Sec / Treasurer State
Geoff Glass; Historian
Heather Warner; WAM Coordinator
Phil Kercher; ASHE Liaison
Keith Deline; SW Chapter President
Ray Tiedemann; Sec / Treasurer SW Chapter
Douglas Sowers; East Chapter President
Bud McIrvin; PS Chapter President
Russ Kent; PS Chapter Immediate Past President
Jim Mead; Sec / Treasurer PS Chapter
Steve Grose

CALL TO ORDER:
President called the meeting to Order at 11:40 a.m. at the Bar 14 Ranch House Restaurant in Ellensburg WA.

CONSENT AGENDA
Approval of September Minutes

BUDGET
The board discussed proposed changes to the President’s 2008-2009 Budget. Motion to increase the semi-annual door prize budget; approved. Motion to adopt annual budget with the changes discussed; approved.

BUSINESS PLAN
Motion to approve the 2008-2009 Business Plan as submitted by President Jones; approved.

BOARD ORIENTATION
President Jones presented a Policy on Potential Conflict of Interest. He read pertinent passages and asked the Board to adopt the policy. Moved and approved. Board members signed the policy or committed to return a signed copy to Secretary Chitwood. Chitwood will send an electronic copy to absent members for their signature.

CHAPTER REPORTS
Southwest Chapter Report
Keith Deline reported on a meeting held at St Peter Hospital where Matt Campbell made a presentation related to the Department of Health. Geoff Glass presented on green operations and Pam Lang presented on compliance issues at meetings held at MultiCare. The chapter’s annual meeting consisted of a golf outing and dinner. Chapter finances are sound.

Puget Sound Chapter Report
Bud McIrvin reported on the chapter’s strategic plan; adopted November 2008. Their Christmas party raised $1,800 for Polio Outreach. The chapter holds an annual golf fundraiser which contributed $6,700 to the Pete Peterson scholarship. Strong finances.

Eastern Chapter Report
Doug Sowers reported on a meeting held at Sacred Heart Medical Center. The group identified people to commit to submitting NewsLine articles and planned their future meeting locations. The State Fire Marshall presented the top eight citations they are seeing on their surveys. Again, finances are good.

COMMUNICATIONS / NEWSLINE / WEBSITE
The Board observed that submission of NewsLine articles has been decreasing. It is in the best interest of WSSHE members to support the NewsLine for the valuable information that is disseminated and it helps maintain our gold standing with AHSE. We would like to have at least 6 pieces of writing that can be educational or simply articles of interest. The chapter presidents agreed to forward at least two submissions per year. The State Secretary will oversee this program and assign an article to a different chapter every other month. We propose to distribute this information on the website and as an e-mail.

The Board discussed providing the roster on the website. We will discuss either direct provision or a password protected access. Moved to approach AMI about providing a password protected roster on the web site with a disclaimer about inappropriate use; approved. Each Chapter to check with their members for input and report at the next Board meeting.

ASHE UPDATE
Phil Kercher is invited to serve on ASHE Region 10 Representative Nominating Committee. Also, Phil to be interviewed by ASHE regarding ASHE & Chapter Relations. On thing ASHE would like to know is “What more can ASHE do for Chapters?”

Phil reported on our application for the gold award. We are affiliated with ASHE and they would like to see a minimum number of our members also members of their organization. The percentage of ASHE members in WSSHE has increased from a threshold of 31% to 40%. Currently, 34% of our members are also ASHE members.

“MAC” MACKENZIE SCHOLARSHIP FUND
Ray Tiedemann reported a loss of $10,000 in the fund performance for the last quarter. He recommended offering 6 scholarships at $600 each for 2008-2009. The Board agreed given the poor fund performance. Scholarship applications are due July 1. The fund balance is $58,687.

WAM UPDATE
Heather Warner reported sponsorship is good for the semi-annual conference.

ADVOCACY
Brad Jones sent a letter to Joyce Stockwell asking for DSHS participation at Conferences. Joyce has declined at this time. Steve Grose reported that the DSHS is not willing to be involved with WSSHE and any educational opportunities within WSSHE at this time.

Steve Grose is planning to run for Region 10 representative to ASHE! If elected, Steve would be the first ASHE Region representative from WSSHE since Jim Hamilton (1990 - or thereabouts). Steve has asked for the WSSHE Board's written endorsement at our February winter meeting. Motion for the Board to endorse Steve's candidacy; approved. Brad will draft a letter expressing WSSHE endorsement.

President Jones will create a Health Care Advocacy Committee and assign a Chair
The Chair’s duties are as follows:
 - Get Society members added to mailing lists.
 - Participate in opinion polls.
 - Be active in the codification / regulatory / inspection process.
 - Review the issue of retroactive application of NFPA 99 code to existing health care facilities to include the following agencies:  State Fire Marshal, CMMS, DOH, and WSHA
 - Work in coordination with Phil Kercher –National Advocate as needed.

OLD BUSINESS
AMI Contract
A six member ad hoc group was formed to review AMI services, the group included Mike Chitwood, Randy Kaiser, Jim Mead, Brad Jones, Tom Pitts and Heather Warner. This ad hoc committee was appointed by the board of Directors. The committee decided to enter into a contract agreement and the information below summarizes the meeting discussion.

New contract equates to $1,750 per month and is based on continuing to provide all services that were currently provided, as well as adding regular updates and audit data to the state treasurer

  - Production of annual Board manuals.
  - Production and sending of 2 flashes per chapter annually.
  - It also anticipates that the website will be updated monthly for 6 months of the year and twice a month for 6 months of the year; as well as 12 e-flashes for the Semi and 12 for the Annual conferences.
  - We will rely upon a schedule to be established by the Board in advance for the issuance of the flashes.
  - We recommend they be divided into 4-vendor, 4 registration/program, and 4 special events/notice

State Bylaws
The bylaws committee, Jim Mead and Russ Kent, will review our current bylaws and report at the semi-annual meeting with any recommended changes.
 - IState Bylaws are adopted at each chapter at this time.
 - IAMI advised us to have only the State Bylaws.
 - IWe are one chapter affiliated with ASHE and have one set of bylaws.
 - IAMI advised us that each sub-chapter should reference the State chapter's bylaws as their own. If they wish, they can develop their own policies and procedures for any unique issue not referenced in the State Bylaws.

Semi Annual Conference
The Board discussed status of planning and outstanding items for the semi-annual conference.

Annual-Education Committee
Committee members for this conference are Phil Kercher, Geoff Glass, Heather Warner, and Brad Jones. The chapter presidents committed to recruiting two of their members to join the committee and forwarding those names to Geoff. The committee will meet Friday afternoon/evening after the semi-annual conference.

Congratulations Stephen Grose!! Named Administrative Director of Support Services at Virginia Mason Medical Center.

ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 2:30 p.m.